New Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer has longstanding connection with Brewers broadcaster

New Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has been a pro basketball presence for many years, but he also crossed paths with a sports figure in Milwaukee's baseball orbit, Brewers announcer Brian Anderson.

Anderson, the Brewers television play-by-play man for Fox Sports Wisconsin since 2007, began his career in Texas with FS Southwest, where his duties included coverage of San Antonio Spurs games as a sideline reporter from 1999 to 2006. But his work as a cameraman for Spurs television dates to 1992. 

Budenholzer served as a Spurs assistant coach from 1996-2013.

“Budenholzer was the video guy (when he started), so we were really close,” Anderson said. ”I was in production on Spurs TV, so we kind of worked hand in hand, and I’d help with the cameras and providing replays. I’ve known him forever.”

Basketball remains a huge part of Anderson’s portfolio. Since 2014, he has annually been apart from the Brewers early in the season while he calls the early rounds of the NBA playoffs for TBS, and he’s become a fixture in NCAA Tournament coverage in March since 2012.

Anderson saw a litany of Spurs coaches early in his career: Larry Brown, Jerry Tarkanian, Red Hughes, John Lucas and Bob Hill. Gregg Popovich was hired in 1996.

“When they won the championship in ‘99, that was a strike-shortened season that year,” Anderson said, noting that the title was given an unofficial asterisk in the minds of basketball fans as a result. “It wasn’t really until they won their second one (2003) that there was validation. You really started to see them build their roster, develop players … that’s where you see the strength of Mike Budenholzer. I was really fortunate to go into practice a lot, and Popovich would give Bud the scout and Bud had a presence, even as a young assistant coach at the time.

"You had to bring something to survive with Gregg Popovich and survive with NBA players. You knew he commanded the room and had great leadership from a very young age.”

Anderson said he noticed early that Popovich was willing to give bright young assistants a shot, even if they lacked NBA playing experience.

“(Budenholzer) was always in the gym, watching film, and playing a part in the player development,” Anderson said. “The Spurs don’t get enough credit for developing players and recognizing specific skill sets that might help in a particular role. Bruce Bowen was the perfect example; he was on his way out of the league, and they brought him in … now his jersey hangs from the rafters. The execution of developing those players fell to the assistants, especially Budenholzer.

“That’s a really important piece of the Spurs culture. He was not just an ancillary figure.”

Anderson stressed this point – that Budenholzer wasn’t just a student of Popovich but rather a collaborator who helped construct the Spurs dynasty.

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“Bud literally started from the bottom in the Gregg Popovich era,” Anderson said. “I got to see how much he handles turmoil in the beginning of a Hall of Fame career. Bud has a much more rounded understanding of all the aspects of coaching. He wasn’t just coming in an learning from Spurs culture; he was an integral part of it.”

Anderson has more than once told the anecdote of how Budenholzer became Anderson’s go-to sideline voice when Popovich – whose disdain for the media has been well documented – grew impatient with sideline interviews. Anderson said it was a moment that made him realize Budenholzer was “a made man” in Popovich’s world.

“I always interviewed Pop at halftime every game, and he hated it,” Anderson said. “I’d try to walk to the locker room to the bench trying to get a couple nuggets, and finally he said, ‘Do we have to do this?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we kind of have to, contractually.’

“He said, ‘I tell you what, I’m not doing this anymore. Anything Bud says, you can say that’s what I say; he thinks like me.’ I thought it was a win-win, that’s perfect. From that point on, Bud was my insider into the world of Gregg Popovich.”

Anderson said he still has a great relationship with Popovich today and adds he saw how the Spurs coaching staff was changing the game, with Budenholzer a part of the equation.

“It was an ‘iso’ NBA game at the time, and they were at the forefront of what we’re seeing now,” Anderson said. “Spacing on the floor, having guys that can shoot the three and give Tim Duncan room. They weren’t running and gunning, but they were spreading out the floor, and those principles still apply.”